By Oscar Obonyo
NAIROBI, KENYA: After the nail-biting and anxious wait for the new Cabinet, President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto’s nominees must face public scrutiny and Parliament vetting.
The individual Cabinet Secretary nominees must pass the test of integrity and the team must reflect the face of Kenya as the constitution stipulates.
The Parliament’s Committee on Appointments must also consider thorny issues such as regional or tribal balance while screening the nominees.
Already, the stage is set for a bruising battle between the Jubilee and CORD coalitions on the composition of the Cabinet nominees.
Deputy Minority Leader Jakoyo Midiwo and Kajiado Central Joseph Nkaissery, for instance, have promised to shoot down the list of nominees on account of lack of regional and tribal balance.
Mr Nkaissery, a member of the committee destined to vet the nominees, claims the Jubilee Government is hiding behind the so-called regional balance.
He instead advocates a tribal arithmetic, arguing all slots in Rift Valley, for instance, have been assigned to a single community.
“Besides regional balancing, the Constitution also demands diversity in appointments to Government positions. But we now have a case where a quorum of the Cabinet can transact business in two dialects,” claims Mr Midiwo.
However, Jubilee allied MPs, Bare Shill (Fafi, URP) and Mohammed Shidiye (Lagdera, TNA), have defended the nominations, claiming the appointments are not confined to the two communities only. Besides the Cabinet Secretaries, Uhuru and Ruto also appointed Lawrence Lenayapa from Rift Valley as State House Comptroller.
Yet to be filled
But all is not over yet as positions of Principal Secretaries are yet to be filled. Unlike the 18 for Cabinet Secretaries, the President and his deputy could hire more Principal Secretaries to take charge of previous ministries, which have now been collapsed into departments of the 18 key ministries.
Even then, Prof Macharia Munene of the United States International University (USIU) does not foresee any serious obstacle to the Uhuru-Ruto Cabinet list: “Unless there is something really terribly wrong with any of the nominees, I see them all sailing through. What is happening is a mere constitutional formality, otherwise Jubilee has the numbers at the committee stage and in Parliament to execute its agenda.”
The Jubilee numbers notwithstanding, Suna East MP Junet Mohammed has urged Parliament to seize the historic opportunity to do what is right and in the interest of Kenya.
“I call upon colleagues in the Appointments Committee not to succumb to the so-called tyranny of numbers and approve the right men and women who can serve this country to its betterment,” he said. The youthful first-term MP urges the committee members and parliamentary colleagues not to be intimidated by the Executive.
The vetting is expected to starton Tuesday according to House Speaker Justin Muturi.
It will kick off the moment he officially gets the list of the nominees from the President’s office.
The vetting process requires public participation and the Appointments Committee is expected to notify the nominees and public on the interview dates and venue.
But members of the civil society are protesting that the President has undermined that process by releasing the names of the nominees piecemeal and by giving the public short notice to interrogate his nominees.
“Except for former ministers Najib Balala and Charity Ngilu, most of the other nominees are hardly known to Kenyans and it will be difficult for anybody carrying out any meaningful investigations on their past,” says human rights lawyer Harun Ndubi.
He also reads mischief in forwarding all the names of aspirants for Cabinet slots, first to National Intelligence Service and the anti-corruption commission and other agencies for vetting, before announcing the final list. “This could be a ploy to make it difficult for anybody too interrogate the track record of the nominees. While the truth cannot be ascertained, chances are if one raises concerns of corruption on any of the nominees, they will be told the candidates have been cleared of all ills,” protests Mr Ndubi.
Head of the Raila Odinga presidential campaign, Eliud Owallo, is particularly opposed to the nomination of Ngilu and Balala.
Mr Owallo claims the two were not only partisan politicians, who spearheaded the Jubilee campaigns, but also lacked professional expertise to execute their roles.
“It is ironical to include politicians in a Cabinet crafted to portray an image of professional inclination, moreso when those politicians are not known to possess technical competencies commensurate with the functional domains of the ministries to which they are being proposed as Cabinet secretaries,” reacted Owallo.
He expressed hope the remaining two slots were not reserved for politicians deemed to possess “strategic value” to the Jubilee Coalition as opposed to service delivery in Government. He also takes issue with the nomination of an Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) commissioner as Cabinet Secretary.
“I am sure CORD supporters will raise concerns on the suitability of Mr Davis Chirchir to serve in Cabinet, arising from issues related to the conduct of the last General Election, to which he has been linked,” said Owallo.
Meanwhile, Prof Munene laughs off protests on Balala and Ngilu nominations, arguing Cabinet selection is a political process: “After all, looking through the list of the nominees I see political operatives, some very smooth maneuverers. So don’t be cheated, these are all politicians, anyway.”
But even as the Appointments Committee prepares to embark on vetting, pundits are uncomfortable with the fact that Speaker of National Assembly will be sitting as its Chair. Ndubi questions how the Speaker is expected to preside over debate and perhaps rejection of a decision arrived at by his own Committee.
“There is a danger inherent in this arrangement, as the Speaker, fully aware of the weak areas of the nominees, can bar discussion towards certain directions and even choose speakers selectively, to shield or propagate the position of his committee. And considering that a decision could be arrived at by way of acclamation, he could easily make a biased decision,” reacts Ndubi.
Midiwo, who served as Joint Government Chief in the Tenth Parliament, explains that the decision to have the Speaker, as chair of the Appointments Committee is part of the Standing Orders legislated during the life of the past Parliament.
“It is a terrible anomaly we must immediately correct. And there are many more such legislative clauses that project a conflict of interest,” concedes the Gem MP.
